Living on a Single Income
SPECIAL FINANCE SERIES
By Paul Strand
-- Surveys show that more and more women want to quit the rat race to stay at home and raise their children. Many want to home-school their kids. But others feel there's no way they can make it on just one income.
"I always took seriously that responsibility to train up my kids in the Lord, and I don't think it's a part-time job," says Gina Jehl of Baltimore, MD.
From when they first wed in 1983, Dave and Gina Jehl of Baltimore started working on her not working someday. "Both of us were working and we deliberately set aside my wife's income because we were planning to have kids," said Dave.
They saved Gina's entire salary for years. "We weren't extravagant. We didn't get any credit card debt. We were setting aside money in the future for a house, setting aside money for an IRA. Had used cars through those years. We were cutting back as much as we could," said the Jehls.
And because of their economizing, Gina could quit work and home-school their four kids. "We've been able to build a very secure, very loving home environment," says Gina.
The question is, is it possible for most American families to live on just one income? The Perez family in Hanover, Pennsylvania is another family that says yes.
"I don't want to be a parent where our kids are being raised by someone else in some nursery or some daycare." say the Perezs'. We actually do better financially now on one income than we did on two. You just learn to cut costs, you learn to live without things. When you're both working, you get home, it's a wreck. You both wanting to...'okay, who's going to take care of this, who's going to take care of that.'"
One of the most startling things Angel and Nicole Perez did to save money was buy a half-burned house for five thousand dollars. "We deliberately made this choice," said Angel. "If you can find a home that's a fixer-upper, that maybe people didn't treat it well, needs a little tender loving care, and you can do a lot of the work yourselves, you can save yourselves a lot of money. We did the re-framing, we did the insulation, we ran new wiring through."
The Jehls are "do-it-yourselfers", too.
"Most of the decorating that we've done around the house, I've done myself," notes Gina. "I was able to wallpaper this room and other rooms in the house, bought the wallpaper at outlets and then bought the wall hangings at flea markets and saved money that way."
Back in Hanover, Nicole studies the weekly grocery ads to the max. "I buy according to the sales. So if pork's on sale, I buy pork that week. If chicken's on sale, I buy chicken. But I never forget to take my coupons, and I have lots of them."
And she's always cruising for great buys now that can become gifts later.
"When I'm shopping, I pick up some things and throw them in the gift drawer," said Nicole. "I've gotten shirts for two dollars, shoes for two dollars, a purse for two or three dollars."
Other ways to save, according to the two families
"If you call your power company, you can inquire about peak and off-peak rates. Off-peak rate is a lower rate in the evening and a higher rate during the day. If you do all your laundry or cooking at night, it's a good way to save money."
"Cutting my own hair."
"Phone companies are not going to offer you their lowest rates right off the bat. You need to call around and check yourself."
"We use our credit cards all the time, but we pay our balance off at the end of every month. We don't pay interest."
"One of the things I've done is once-a-month cooking so I have a freezer full of food."
"All you have to do is pull it out and you're not going to go out and buy pizza or buy fast-food all the time."
But no matter how many corners they cut both the Perezes and Jehls believe the main reason they can make it on one income is because they always tithe.
"Tithing is a very important principle. If you don't tithe, you'll never make it on just one income." It's one area that the Lord says to test Him: in tithing and giving," say the Jehls.
And though they've had to sacrifice financially, they say the time for their kids makes it all worth it.
"The times that Marissa does something spectacular at the house, Nicole calls me and tells me about it, and it just fills my life with joy, says Angel.
Paul Strand - CBN
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